Reduction in light emitting diode (LED) package size is an important factor in the design of various portable display technologies requiring compact design such as cell phones or handheld computers. Traditionally, LED's are housed in packages that include multiple components which occupy an area much larger than the LED chip itself. As shown in FIG. 6, the LED chip may be bonded to a thermally conductive sub-mount which contains electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuitry to prevent damage to the LED. The LED and sub-mount are further mounted on a heatsink slug and encapsulated within a pre-molded thermoplastic lens through which wide metal lead frames extend. For some applications, however, it may be desirable to reduce the package size.